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Video Voyeur: 3Qs with Carli Naff

Carli Naff is a songstress that we’ve had our eye on since the Summertime. Her infectious and glorious track comes to us in the form of “Clean,” which has had fans and critics alike very intrigued. Her voice comes direct from the heavens, as it hovers above the musical background; something that the video helps bring to life. Carli Naff stopped by Modern Mystery to talk about her new video for “Clean,” and the process behind it all. Take a read, below.

Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?

I wrote this song after an emotional breakup that was very stretched out; a hard-to-rip-the-bandaid-off kind of thing. It was when I was feeling frustrated that I couldn’t get out of the same cycle of delving back into what had gone wrong and looking for more and more closure. I chose to visualize it because this is the first single I’ve ever released and wanted new fans to be able to know me a little bit better as a singer, songwriter and performer! Also because the dark and brooding nature of the song lent itself to some cool, suspenseful visuals.

What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

The visuals and the abstract narrative in this song are inspired by an introspective journey. I realized in the process of making this video, that as much as I am singing this song to an ex-love, I am also singing it to myself and to the part of my brain that feeds on my own toxic cycles. It was me who kept going back to “the same spot, over and over again.” And to confront another person in a relationship is the same as finally confronting yourself, maybe a part of yourself that you don’t like, and making the choice to grow larger than the smallness of that particular voice in your head.

As far as the inspiration behind creating the video, it was pure circumstance and spontaneity! I had already spent a significant amount of effort and time filming a completely different music video for this song with a cast, crew, budget etc. After several months of working on it, I realized it wasn’t going to be the right fit for the song (huge learning lesson for me). And on that very same day of epiphany, I happened to be in Chicago visiting a few good friends, one of whom is the producer on the record who arranged the song, David Hagen. I was at his and his wife’s apartment when my flight home got cancelled due to bad weather in New York, and a cool, red sunset inspired us to get up on the roof and film something! We had no plan or idea, and we followed our whims as we went. The muses were definitely with us that day, and if my flight hadn’t been cancelled, it would have never been made!

What was the process of making this video?

So, David lives in an apartment building where he also has a studio/luthurie. He designs and builds guitars (check them out here, they’re beautiful! http://hagenguitars.com), but he found out that the key to his studio also unlocked a lot of restricted areas in his apartment building! So we were able to access a freight elevator, the roof, some sort of electrical room, and a most-certainly-restricted staircase up to a big boiler/smoke stack type of structure on top of the building. We explored the area and just filmed what came to us in the moment without really knowing how it would come together! I wore the clothes I was wearing when we had the idea, we did one or two takes of each shot, and that was it. We did the whole thing in maybe an hour and a half, then went back to his and his wife’s apartment and all cooked tofu tacos and made sangria. It was too easy and such a great, spontaneous memory.